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Let the unusual guide you off the beaten track

Business models with a difference can draw in learners and give them a fresh perspective

Widget Finn

February 1 2010, 2:58pm, The Times

Sex sells books — so do wacky titles. Add to the mix a business school academic for a touch of gravitas, and you have a bestseller topping four million copies worldwide. Steven Levitt, the author of Freakonomics, is now busy promoting the sequel Superfreakonomics.

Superfreakonomics may be catchy but what does it mean? Professor Levitt, of Chicago Booth School of Business, admits in the introduction that he does not know. He dreamed up the title for the first book and, despite his publisher’s protests, went for it. The rest is publishing history.

Levitt uses an offbeat approach, asking why chemotherapy is prescribed so often if it is ineffective and whether a sex change can boost your salary. He says that Chicago prostitutes charge punters less…

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